Pistachio Orange Crescent Cookies [Holiday Recipe Exchange]

November 28, 2011

I hope everyone had an enjoyable, delicious, fun-filled Thanksgiving. Now that we’ve gotten through that milestone of the 2011 Holiday season, we can start talking about Christmascookies! One of our family’s favorite parts about December is baking and decorating Christmascookies (and listening to Christmas music).

Because I like taking favorite recipes and tweaking them with new flavors, I thought I’d do the same thing this year. I used a recipe I’ve made before for Swedish Crescent Cookies and added orange zest and pistachios to switch things up a bit.

Pistachios have always been one of my favorite nuts and I think they taste great with orange. Crescent Cookies are easily adaptable with whatever nuts you have on hand or enjoy the most.

The OXO Good Grips Small Cookie Scoop is the perfect size for these cookies. You can shape them as crescents as the name implies, or just roll the portioned amount from the scoop into pretty little balls. I love to use cookie scoops to ensure evenly proportioned cookies.

Since you’ll be digging out your favorite recipes for Christmas cookies soon, if you haven’t already, you’ll definitely want to participate in this week’s Holiday Recipe Exchange sponsored by OXO. Why? Because the theme is Christmas cookies of course!

Join Jamie and me this week in sharing your recipes for your Favorite Christmas Cookies for a chance to win a great cookie baking utensil gift set from OXO. OXO offers some seriously awesome kitchen gadgets and I know you’ll love the tools in today’s selection. They were selected with the purpose of making your Christmas cookie baking a little bit simpler.

Now, we want to know what your favorite Christmas cookie is, so join in on the fun and link up your recipe for a chance to win this fab OXO set! Check out Jamie’s Rum Balls.

Directions:

In a bowl, beat the butter and 1/2 cup sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract, yolk. Beat till combined. Slowly stir in the in the flour, nuts, and zest.

For the dough into a ball and flatten into a disc shape. Cover and chill for 2 hours.

When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Remove a heaping tablespoon of dough at a time, shaping into crescent shapes.

Arrange about 1 1/2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Bake until cookies are lightly golden around the edges, about 15-20 minutes. While still warm, coat the cookies with confectioners sugar. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

How To Participate

For a chance to win an OXO Cookie Baking Utensil Gift Set valued at $150.88 (details of prize specifics below):

Write and post a recipe on your blog featuring YOUR BEST CHRISTMAS COOKIE.

This recipe looks amazing!

Wonderful cookies for any holiday cookie swap!

I second the listening to Christmas music idea – I’ve been itching to turn mine on since mid-November. And if someone brought a batch of these cookies over, that would just be the powdered sugar on top. 🙂

Preheat oven to 350* Mix ingredients in the order given. Mix well after each addition. Chill well. Make into small balls (cookie scoop works great for this) and roll in sugar. ** do not flatten.
Bake on ungreased cookie sheet at 350 about 15 minuts.
makes 5 dozen, can be halved easily.

Beat in the pumpkin. Then, add the flour and beat to incorporate.

Drop dough 2″ apart on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until tops are set. Transfer to a wire rack to let cool.

For the icing, in a small saucepan, heat 1/2 cup butter and brown sugar until melted and smooth. Transfer to a medium bowl and stir in milk and 1 tsp. vanilla. Beat in confectioners’ sugar until smooth. Spread onto cookies.

These look so delicate and lovely!!

These look delicious. Santa will be a happy fella when I leave some of theses for him ;D

These have been a new family tradition for a few years. Be prepared to make them a few times since they go fast and also are best if eaten within a few days of being made. Super easy, they cook while you sleep and are ready when you wake up!!!! 🙂

Variation – use a drop of red food coloring, a drop of peppermint extract, & fold in crushed candy canes

I make almond cookies with chocolate icing. YUM!

Cream together the butter with the granulated sugar. Mix in flour and extract. Scoop out a spoonful of the mixture and shape into 1-inch balls. (The mixture will just barely come together.) Put each ball onto a cookie sheet and press your thumb into each one to make an indention. Bake 14-18 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool.

I made these cookies today. They are absolutely delicious! However, I found the instructions a bit… odd. Form the dough into a ball, then flatten and chill. I figured the next step would be, ‘Cut out cookies with cookie cutter,’ but then you say to scoop out a heaping tablespoon of dough. Did you mean to flatten and cut with forms, or leave in a ball and scoop? The dough was far too hard to just scoop; it probably would have been fine without chilling (if scooping). I used a cookie cutter, but I am still unclear on the original instructions. These cookies hold their form very well!

The recipe was adapted from the cookbook and that is what the instructions said. I’m guessing that the flattening it was so the dough would chill faster rather than being in one large, thick hunk. I was impatient with my first batch a while ago and did not chill them. The cookies didn’t hold their shape well because the dough was to soft, so I found the chilling essential.

This recipe has been handed down a couple generations in my family. They are super yummy and easy to make! The sour cream gives them a wonderful texture.

LEMON KNOTS

Cream butter and sugar, add eggs, mix sour cream into flour with hands,then add rest of ingrediants slowly. Keep adding more flour until youhave a smooth not sticky dough.(it may take 1 or 2 more cups of flouror more). I put dough into fridge for a few hours or up to 2 days.Roll into knots or balls.
Bake 350 oven for 15 or 20 min., bottom of cookies will be brown.
cool cookies. ______________________________________________________
Frosting
1cup powdered sugar
1 or 2 tsp. lemon extract. (I use 1)
few drops of water

Mix until medium thick consistancy. Dip just top ofcookie into mixture. Let them dry very well and then store in fridge until your ready to serve.
Should make about 100 cookies if small enough.

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Hello! I'm Katie, author of GoodLife Eats Etc. where I share what I find in my life. A mix of great recipes, family memories, adventures, good reads, and anything else that I love is what you will discover here.